Prime Minister Again Sues Cartoonists
The weekly satirical cartoon magazine Leman has again been targeted by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
"Western immorality"
On the front cover of its 6 February 2008 issue, the magazine had made fun of a recent utterance by Erdogan. He had said, “We have not adopted the scholarship and science of the West, but only its immorality.”
The magazine cover features a photo montage of Erdogan with the utterance in a speech bubble and depicting him as showing his middle finger.
The Prime Minister found it necessary to state, via his lawyers, that the cover was indeed a photo montage, and he is now suing for 20,000 YTL (around 11,300 Euros) compensation.
Leman: Politicians must accept criticism
Magazine editor Zafer Aknar told bianet: “We invite the Prime Minister to be serious. While Turkey has thousands of problems, he is suing satirical magazines. All politicians, not only Erdogan, have lost politically when they have opposed humour.”
“The other day the Prime Minister said, ‘Do we interfere with the photos of naked women in the newspapers?’ Well, we ask him not to interfere with our cover pages. He is acting in violation of universal political rules; as soon as enter politics, you accept criticism as part of the game.”
Aknar pointed out that the cover image had been on the Internet for a long time and everyone had seen it. He stated that because of the Prime Minister’s stance, the magazine had received phone calls containing threats and swearing, and that they had been made a public target. According to Aknar, a statue of well-known deceased satirist Oguz Aral in Istanbul was destroyed because of this mindset.
Prime Minister has lost previous four cases
Erdogan has sued satirical magazines and newspapers four times before, but his demands have always been rejected by the judiciary.
On 18 April 2007, the Ankara 14th Civil Court of First Instance rejected his claim for 25,000 YTL compensation from cartoonist Mehmet Cagcag and Leman magazine for depicting him as a tick.
On 14 February 2007, the Ankara 1st Civil Court of First Instance rejected his claim for 40,000 YTL compensation from the Penguen magazine for a cover depicting “The Kingdom of Tayyips”.
On 27 June 2006, the Ankara 20th Civil Court of First Instance rejected his claim for 10,000 YTL compensation from cartoonist Sefer Selvi of the Günlük Evrensel newspaper after the case returned from the Supreme Court of Appeals. On 5 May 2005, the Istanbul 1st Civil Court of First Instance had rejected the case of Prime Ministerial advisor Cüneyt Zapsu who had filed a complaint against the same cartoon.
On 24 May 2007, the 4th Legal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Appeals overturned the decree of the Ankara 8th Civil Court of First Instance which had sentences cartoonist Musa Kart of the Cumhuriyet newspaper to paying 5,000 YTL compensation for portraying the Prime Minister as a cat. (EÖ/TK/AG)
